For those who are interested in the nutritional aspects of mental illness, here are some references:

Werbach,M.R.(1991), NUTRITIONAL INFLUENCES ON MENTAL ILLNESS, A Sourcebook of Clinical Research, Third Line Pres, Inc.Tarzana. Cal.

Chaitow,L(1985), AMINO ACIDS IN THERAPY, Thorsons Pub. Inc N.Y.

Alternative Mental Health

Conquering Anxiety, Depression and Fatigue Without Drugs - The Role of Hypoglycemia byProfessor J H Levitt

Depression: a Disease of Energy Production

Web site: Anxiety and Panic Attacks and its connection to Hypoglycemia here

Research Evidence for Hypoglycemia and Depression

Pubmed at:

Connection between Depression and Insulin Resistance

Google searches:

Hypoglycemia and Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety and Insulin Resistance

Alcoholism and Hypoglycemia

Article"Alcoholism and Hypoglycemia"

Why Hypoglycemics crave Alcohol?

Stormy69

So are you saying that every person suffering from any disorder or illness is Hypoglycemic? and diet is the answer?
Because this is all I am getting from all of your source links.

jurplesman

Yes, it is all a matter of broadening your mind and look at different angles for causes of mental illness. You seem to simplify nutritional therapy when you say "that every person suffering from any disorder or illness is Hypoglycemic? "

Perhaps you would like to study it with an open mind.

J_9

Let me see if I understand you correctly. If a person were diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder or schizophrenia, they could be cured by following your diet?

While I do agree that your diet is very beneficial, I do believe it can be dangerous to lead people to believe that they will be cured by following your diet.

I have a family member who would be dead right now if he followed only your diet. He is Bipolar and has been on a hypoglycemic diet for several years now. Is he off his meds because of the diet? No, actually his meds have had to be increased.

orange

Jpurplesman, do you have any severely mentally ill people in your family? And if so, have they been cured by your diet? I ask because there's a big difference between treating a patient in your office and having them "present" as well to you, and actually living with someone and seeing them night and day. I know my husband has patients who present well in the office, but continue to act in bizarre ways at home and with their families. Just a thought.

jurplesman

No most psychotic disorders cannot be treated by diet alone. But the hypoglycemic diet will reduce many of their symptoms. Also the hypo diet may offset some of the side effects of drugs. See:

Werbach,M.R.(1991), NUTRITIONAL INFLUENCES ON MENTAL ILLNESS, A Sourcebook of Clinical Research, Third Line Pres, Inc.Tarzana. Cal.

Also see my article:

The Nutritional Aspects of Schizophrenia go to page 7 of Newsletter.

But there are orthomolecular psychiatrists who treat schizophrenia nutritionally.

A good reference is:

Alternative Mental Health

Yes I know all about mental illness. I began my career as a Psychiatric Nurse in the 1950's. I was severely mentally ill most of the first part of life up to about 1964. Have been on psychiatric drugs, was suicidal, became an iatrogenic drug addict, underwent "counselling" of all sorts without much help. I discovered nutritional biochemistry through reading. I am also partially deaf which makes class room type of education very difficult for me. I completed a degree at the University majoring in psychology, in the hope of helping myself. Went through uni mostly whilst on drugs. After graduation I became a drug counsellor where I discovered the connection between drug addiction and hypoglycemia. This is where I came off drugs. Then became a psychotherapist in the Probation and Parole Service of NSW running groups for drug addicts and many other offenders. My unorthodox approach to therapy came into conflict with established authority especially organised psychiatry, that seems to rule over the mental health industry.

See my career here.

I have mental illness running in my family. My brother was Bipolar with very severe symptoms. I was able to help him a little with the diet and also lecithin. See:
Lecithin and Bipolar Disorder, that counteracts the manic phase of his illness. He had been under the care of many psychiatrists only one of whom was more accepting of the nutritional approach. Just before he died he was on about 17 medications. There are two other members in my brother's immediate family with schizophrenia. The other children have escaped by going on a hypoglycemic diet from early childhood on.

I have suffered from every type of non-psychotic illness, from PTSD (war experiences), OCD, anxieties, nightmares, agoraphobia, suicidal thoughts you name it.

I have tried to record my experiences as a psychotherapist in my self-help book "Getting off the Hook" which is freely available on the internet.

In my retirement I am devoting my life to helping people overcome this dreadful disease through education.

J_9

Jurplesman,

I understand Cellular Respiration – Glucose produces Pyruvic Acid ->Acetyl CoA, and so on. I understand dehydrogenase, the Electron Transport System (ETS) and oxidative phosphorylation. I also understand that you have a Bachelors Degree, are a Registered Nurse with a couple more letters behind the name (not that far ahead of me) and I understand that all of the links in the majority of your answers go straight to your newsletter and your website, except for some of the Google sites you give.

I believe all of this is your research and it is not, as yet, recognized by any of the major medical associations in the world. And as a researcher you are unwisely suggesting that people of AMHD basically volunteer for your experiments, which should be conducted to the rigorous and recognised standards of a proper medical research which would include among other things complete medical screening of the volunteers. It places people at AMHD at unnecessary hazard, one of which is that the rate of diabetes in the U.S. alone is rising at astronomical proportions and I fear someone who is early stage diabetic and does not know they are early stage diabetic, goes on your diet, and seriously damages kidney, liver and/or pancreas.



With that in mind, would you and your Association be willing to accept responsibility?

valinors_sorrow

While I have repeated agreed to nutrition playing a larger part than most might believe in many aspects of health... here is where I have trouble with the amount of significance being placed on nutrition as a role in mental illness by you:

1. The copyright to the book is 1986; it is essentially an old idea. I know the mechanics of a good idea in the culture I live in enough to know with little doubt that if this was a breakthrough, it would have been picked up somewhere in mainstream research, trials would have been conducted, papers published, even books written. The biomechanics side of pyschiatry is expanding slowly and not as a seperate part of psychology or psychiatry. There have been similar books written - Susan Powter "Stop The Insanity" was one of the more famous ones and her books line the shelves of thrift stores now. There are other nutritional books of a more holistic approach to mental illness but even there nutrition plays only a part of something with many factors involved. It is not enough for me that you attempt to explain it away with "My unorthodox approach to therapy came into conflict with established authority especially organised psychiatry, that seems to rule over the mental health industry." Frankly if you don't understand that every quack solution floating down the pike likes to make that claim, then you haven't been in a health food store in the last decade and I would encourage you to go and look.

2. I have read through many of the posts and you vary in your statements about how much the help can help. With your brother, you were able to help "a little" but with a total stranger who admits to very little except being on the verge of suicide you imply you know exactly what is wrong. That really stunned me. One minute it may help some and the next minute it is the answer. That kind of inconsistency makes me think either some bad science is happening here or there is an agenda that isn't geared to really helping as the primary objective... either way isn't good.

3. When I give you firsthand accounts of not being helped enough by nutrition in my mental illness, you don't seem to have a reasonable way to factor that into equation. Why can't we both be right? Sometimes you aren't going to be able to help someone, and sometimes neither am I or anyone else here. Its the drive to prove you are right, at the implied expense of anything else, that makes me wonder what's up with this whole thing. This is all so easily avoided by sticking to saying "this change in nutrition might help" or "this diet may help with symptoms". Then if it doesn't, no harm, no foul. If you are going to use absolute statements, then I am concerned about the potential for hazard when you can't be held accountable should they prove unsound.

I think you may have a viable message, if it were toned down several decibles and more reasonable in its fitting in with other solutions. Otherwise, it sadly comes off as "if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, then you tend to see every problem as a nail" which is no solution at all and risky business in the arena of mental illness, in my opinion.

jurplesman

You seem to be more interested in my qualifications than in the arguments I am presenting. I am trained in Clinical Nutrition and the best qualifications I have are years of experience as a nutritional psychotherapist to get people off drugs, overcome their depression, anxiety attacks and OCD, PTSD. Nobody forces you to be interested in my experiences. From what you write I get the impression that you are NOT interested. That is perfectly alright. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. But you never know a person reading on the side in our discussions may be interested and find an alternative way of overcoming their depression.


I am surprised to hear this from a nursing student. Please discuss this notion with a doctor for better information.

These so called "quack solutions" are shared by a lot of scientists that happen to be outside the commercial, profit driven psycho/pharmaceutical industrial complex. This is why I have given some references from other sources.

Where do I state that I "know exactly what is wrong" "with a total stranger"?

Most clients who come to see for the first time are thoroughly assessed in order to build a "social history" and also assessed medically for possible biological disorder that could account for their behaviour. I really don't see your point.

You do a lot of "mind-reading" here.
I cannot recall, that we discussed your personal condition, but I have often stated that when it comes to psychotic disorder - such as schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder (running in my own family), nutrition can alleviate symptoms but not necessarily "cure" the illness. I also know from experience that there are dietary means of reducing the side effects of certain medications, which are always discussed in cooperation with the supervising psychiatrist. The statement that "nutrition might help" or "may help" are normal statements, that anybody familiar with science would say. If I would have used categorical statements you could have attacked me for making statements that are obviously false and not capable of substantiation. It is imprudent to say that "All mentally ill people have hypoglycemia". You should know, as well as I know, that most scientific statements are based on scientific literature using statistical probabilities in their research. This would exclude many categorical statements in science. But when it comes to text books on biochemistry the information given are usually in the form of categorical statements as a result of years of research by specialists. I won't give examples here

It seems it is politically correct to say that "depression is a mutifactorial disease". This fits the conventional ideology. Yet conventional therapy seems to use only two tools in their toolbox: 1)drug therapy and/or 2) psychotherapy.

If you feel that depression is a complex matter, it may be to you, but not necessarily to me. I am always looking for causes - biological and psychological. Sometimes I am right and at other times I fail. But al all time I believe I have not made the connection between cause and consequence. A broken down computer is a very complex machine, but not to a computer technician. He is looking for causes and consequences on the basis of what he knows (science) of the computer.

If depression is truly a multifactorial illness, than why do you have an objection to adding another tool in your tool box? Nutritional therapy is just an additional tool.

If you would be familiar with my book, you would know that psychotherapy plays an essential role in total therapy. Two chapters are devoted to Nutritional Therapy and six are devoted to psychotherapy. Again most of the psychotherapy I teach may have departed from traditional teachings. Much has been developed from sheer experiences working with not only my own past personal emotional problems, but with thousands of clients who I had the privilege to meet.

My major message is that biological therapy comes before psychotherapy and here I seem to be in conflict with most traditionally educated psychologists. I object to the notion that the mind controls the body at all time. Most psychiatrist woud agree with me, but my dispute with psychiatrists seems to be that in most cases of non-psychotic mental disorders (brain diseases) I view pharmaceutical medications to be palliative and often do not solve the underlying biochemical abnormality at the root of depression.

In conclusion I would like to say that I merely wanted to particpate in this discussion board because I believe that my experiences with mental illness, as a one-time client myself and a psychotherapist could throw a different and alternative light on treatment. But I also feels that I am in a fairly hostile environment here.

I realize that I sense a conflict that centers around me, as a person, rather than what I have to say. If that is the case, then you may have to look at your own emotional reactions to other people. You should wonder why I can (or you allow yourself) to stir up such strong emotions that has led you to insult me by questioning my integrity and demeaning me in another post titled "depression".

"An important scientific innovation rarely, makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiar with the idea from the beginning."
-Max Planck

valinors_sorrow

My only concern is the people here are not a pool of potential clients, yours or otherwise.